Premier League ticket black market exposed by BBC investigation

A BBC probe has revealed a black market selling thousands of Premier League tickets. Companies headquartered in a slew of overseas locations, including in southwestern town with a population of 4,000, are behind it. Tickets are expected to be sold at scale through clubs' online ticket portals, and they are said to be using memberships and computer software to obtain tickets at scale. In the United Kingdom, ticket resale is unlawful, and the Premier League names the pages on a

unauthorised list. External Despite this, BBC Sport was able to buy tickets for four of last weekend's games with a simple click. The activity has been referred to as

endemic" in English football. The Manchester derby on Sunday was sold out weeks earlier, but we did buy a pair of tickets in the City end days before the match, but not a week before. We also bought tickets for fixtures at Arsenal, Everton, and West Ham. Our journalists were able to gain entry to the game at all four matches. However, for those who have used these pages, this is not always the case, with fans telling BBC Sport that they paid for tickets that didn't allow them to play games.

The tickets ranged from two to four times the face value, with some being sent via UK phone numbers on Whatsapp on one occasion with specific instructions not to speak to stewards. The findings have prompted calls for clubs, the Premier League, and the government to do more to cracking down on the black market. Supporters are finding it impossible to obtain tickets from official sources at face value, making it even more difficult for supporters to obtain them, as well as increasing a potential safety issue to tightening segregation laws. In response, clubs said they were hard at this location and that they had already cancelled tens of thousands of memberships and tickets, as a result.

Concern practice is 'endemic across the game'

More than 50 websites are listed on the Premier League's unauthorised list of ticket sellers. Stubhub and Vivid Seats are two of Chelsea's most popular websites, with Chelsea owner Todd Boehly acting as We decided to concentrate on four websites from this list that were available in the United Kingdom and seemed to be selling the most tickets. In total, the four venues sold tens of thousands of Premier League tickets. For example, more than 18,000 tickets were sold for Arsenal vs. Nottingham Forest alone, almost a third of the Emirates' capacity. We were unable to determine if any of these tickets were legitimate beyond the ones we bought, according to BBC Sport. Reg Walker, a ticket security specialist, believes that

speculative listings - tickets that these websites don't have

will clarify the advertised figures. In truth, only 10-25% of those tickets exist, he said. For context, 10% would equate to thousands of tickets for each round of Premier League matches. The prices we saw varied from £55 to £14,962, often at much cheaper prices and often with a significant booking fee.

We had a family of Japanese tourists who paid £2,200 for tickets at an £87 face value,

Walker, who works with Premier League clubs as a consultant and has been in the ticketing industry for 40 years. Tickets for Arsenal's exclusive Diamond Club and Manchester City's Tunnel Club were already available. Our findings, according to the Football Supporters' Union, were very worrying.It confirms what we've heard anecdotally. This is becoming endemic throughout the game, FSA chair Tom Greatrex said.

Long-term supporters are finding it difficult to obtain tickets because of the way they are distributed through secondary channels.

The Premier League, which declined to comment on the findings, sees ticketing as primarily a responsibility of the clubs, but it is in the process of re-establishing central support for club anti-touting activities. In one instance on the morning of the game, all our tickets were issued digitally and worked as mobile passes. Seat numbers were not announced until the tickets were delivered. We ordered an upper tier for Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium, behind the goal seat. What really happened was a Club View ticket near the halfway line, external, which included a free pint. One digital ticket was immediately updated in our mobile wallet, displaying a different seat number and presumably for the Champions League fixture against Napoli days after the game at the Etihad. Only two of the clubs we visited responded to a request for information on our findings. Arsenal reported that nearly 74,000 accounts trying to purchase tickets in unauthorised ways as part of

strong measures against ticket tampering. Everton said they have been operating

joint operations with Merseyside Police to warn against touts operating online and in person.

Companies 'exploiting a loophole and putting fans at risk'

In the United Kingdom, selling football tickets is unlawful, except on a club-approved swap, a step taken to discourage rival supporters from clashing on the terraces. However, the four firms used are registered in Spain, Dubai, Germany, and Estonia, which is outside the scope of UK law. Nonetheless, they are all aiming for UK customers with online banners, and Football Ticket Net's Live Football Tickets, Seatsnet, and Cricket Ticketnet have all been contacting us from UK phone numbers. Ticombo, the German company that had registered in Germany, had multiple offices in Engelberg, a mountain resort in central Switzerland with a population of 4,000. It was the first company to respond to our research, releasing a statement from Ticombo legal that it is a trusted resale platform and highlighting

the key role of secondary markets in supporting consumer choice and competition. It said in a statement that it categorically denied allegations of wrongdoing or possible unlawful conduct. Ticombo said that

laws that explicitly prohibit ticket resale are likely to shield consumers, but that, in reality, only give the organisers a monopoly. If we had a positive experience at the London Stadium, it asked us to leave the company with a glowing Trustpilot report.

There seems to be a loophole where coMPanies are based in another country and must be looked at in terms of legislation,

says Greatrex, a former Labour MP. "If we have a situation where segregation is undermined to the point that you have away fans in home areas, it could be disastrous.

Inside the Etihad alongside Man City's most ardent supporters

On the unauthorised website we used just days before the game, there was plenty of options for the Manchester derby. Opting for the cheapest ticket we could find, mine cost about three times face value and arrived a few days later via a link from a mobile phone. It was accompanied with strict instructions. After the match for security reasons, I was told not to speak with security forces. I must

go inside the stadium one hour before kick-off (no earlier)

and delete the ticket after the match was declared

for safety reasons. I was advised, if challenged over the ticket, to lie and say it was a free gift, because stadium workers

have a right to invalidate tickets. Despite such warnings, my ticket was accepted without any error being displayed. No questions asked, entry was surprisingly easy. A request was also included in the instructions not to wear away team colors. It's clear why this instruction is given. The ticket was for a seat in the home section, which was against one of the goals. I was in the presence of some of the city's most ardent supporters. Opponent supporters who appear in home sections have caused fans from several clubs to be extremely dissatisfied. On my trip to the Etihad, I discovered how segregation policies intended to divide rival supporters in the interests of security.

'It's an arms race'

None of the companies involved would disclose information about the exact procedure they used to obtain tickets at such large. However, more commonly, many tickets that end up on the black market are sold by robbers who use software bots and false identities.

You're talking about tens of thousands of dollars in the custody of touts at most clubs,

Walker said.

We discovered over 900 members at a Premier League club that were under the custody of one of these resale companies.

It's an arms race.

The number of the challenges were shown by several clubs in the last year, with Arsenal withdrew 30,000

suspicious entries

removed from their ticket ballots. Liverpool also dropped 100,000

fake ticketing accounts

last year. Only 12 arrests were recorded by the Home Office last season, according to the department's statistics. Arsenal's head of ticketing up until April was Manal Smith. She says the

disappointment of a supporter who turns up and is refused admission

was the most difficult part of her job. We talked to several fans who paid hundreds of pounds for tickets from

unauthorised

websites, but we didn't get to watch the game they were looking forward to. A 50th birthday trip from Devon to Old Trafford was ruined. At Wembley Stadium, a 79-year-old Crystal Palace FAn lost his team's FA Cup victory.

Just don't do it,